The Mobile computing devices, such as smartphones and tablet computers, have become ubiquitous and their use continues to increase. Along with the increased popularity, there has been a similar increase in the amount of data handled by networks of service providers. Mobile computing device users typically pay based on how much data that is communicated via the networks.
Services providers offer various plans for users on an account. For example, a family may share a data usage plan in which they are allocated a particular amount of data per month as an aggregate value for all of the users on the account. Currently, it is possible to set hard limits on a user's device or on their account to manager going over the total aggregate limit on the account. These hard limits are typically conservative, causing users to throttle behavior or lose function. Often, a fair amount of unused data allocation remains at the end of a use period.
For at least these reasons, there is a need for improved techniques for users to manage their data usage plans so that their data allocation is used more efficiently.